1 Then
came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
2 And
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
3 Son
of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the
stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at
all by them?
4 Therefore
speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God;
Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and
putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the
prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh
according to the multitude of his idols;
5 That
I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all
estranged from me through their idols.
6 ¶Therefore
say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God;
Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and
turn away your faces from all your abominations.
7 For
every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel,
which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and
putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a
prophet to inquire of him concerning me; I the Lord
will answer him by myself:
8 And
I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb,
and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel
14:1-8)
This block of verses have
some puzzling things in them. The
elders of Israel come to Ezekiel to inquire of the Lord through him, but the
Spirit tells Ezekiel that the elders did not inquire sincerely and that they
still have idols in their hearts.
The
Lord tells Ezekiel something strange He will do to people who do this – “I
the Lord will answer him that cometh according to
the multitude of his idols; That I may take the house of Israel in their own
heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.” (v4-5) He says further that “I the Lord will answer him by myself: And I will set my face
against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him
off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.” (v7-8)
What is it these people are doing? They are likening the words of the
prophets to themselves, but because of the idols in their hearts (things they
love more than God, sins they prefer more than God) they are likening the words
of the prophets in a way that will justify them in committing their favorite
sins. This is what it means
when the Lord says He will answer them according to their idols. It is not that the Lord wants them to interpret His words as
they do, but they take an edifying message and twist it to their purposes.
However, that doesn’t free them from
the negative consequences, and the Lord declares these people will eventually
be cut off from among the people, which means they will leave the church or be
excommunicated. You see, any time
someone prefers a sin or idol to God and interprets God’s words to encourage
them in that, they set a course that will lead them by degrees out of the
church.
How does this help us today? It shows us God knows perfectly well
that people bent on keeping their favorite sins use His words to justify
themselves and He also knows the consequences and warns all of us against
trying that trick (and all of us may find ourselves in that situation at once
time or another.) We have
everything to lose and nothing to gain by doing that.
How much better it is to use the word
of God to show us what sins we have to give up and then use the Atonement! This reminds me how important it is to pray with real intent and sincerity when praying for guidance.
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